Puthia Temple Complex

The Puthia Raj estate originated in the sixteenth century, traditionally through a jagir granted by Raja Man Singh, Akbar's governor. That origin is traditional; the individual temple dates are better attested. A mixture of styles across the fourteen structures, including pancha-ratna and char-chala forms.

Puthia is where the full vocabulary of Bengali temple architecture can be seen in one place, side by side: pancha-ratna five-spired forms, char-chala four-sloped roofs, and more. Its Bhubaneshwar Shiva Temple is described as among the largest Shiva temples in the subcontinent. It also shows what zamindar patronage produced: not one great temple but a dynastic landscape of them, accumulated over generations.

Confirm festival dates and local conditions close to the time of travel. Several of these sites hold gatherings of very large scale.

Protection status. Fourteen structures are declared protected and maintained by the Department of Archaeology. The Bhubaneshwar Shiva Temple's stone carving and sculpture were disfigured during the 1971 Liberation War. That is the documented record.